MAP24: Hell Beneath (PlayStation Doom)

MAP24: Hell Beneath is the twenty-fourth level in the Ultimate Doom episode of the PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions of Doom. It is based on the original E4M1: Hell Beneath, with modifications made to adapt the map to the consoles' memory and speed limitations. The author of the original map is American McGee.

Essentials
Red key

Take the shotgun and enter the open area. Shotgun guys will start spawning here, so repel their attacks. Afterward, head past the red door into the arch. Inside, turn right and push the switch at the end. Return back to discover a wall opened at the west revealing western area. Go there and turn right. You should notice an entrance to the building at the bottom. Carefully jump there and go to the southern end into a room. Here you can find the red skull key. Taking this will spawn numerous enemies around the level and in this room, so repulse their attacks. To escape either push a wall in the second room leading to the western courtyard or use the lift at the entrance to the first room.

Blue key

Backtrack to the starting area and open the red door. Walk around the metal wall and kill the imps behind it. Find the blue skull key here, but note that once you take it, some enemies will spawn around.

With the blue key you are ready to exit the level. Go back to the western area you first found red key and open the blue door. The teleporter pad is the finish.

Secrets

 * 1) There is a secret lift in the first open area. If you fall down into the nukage pool you can lower this lift to the right of you. Behind it is an alcove with two boxes of rockets and a rocket launcher. Take these and press use on the wall to your left, revealing a secret room with two teleporter pads. (sector 71) Each one sends you to a ledge near the starting room where the shotgun guys waited for you to enter. Take the supplies on the first ledge and go back to the secret room to teleport on the second ledge.
 * 2) After getting the red key, go through the red door in the starting area. As you enter the room, notice the tall red firestick to your left. Press use on this torch, and the rectangular metal structure will lower to reveal several gory decorations. (sector 27) Once you step on the secret, the outer walls of the room will rise; step away from them or they will crush you against the ceiling. Two Hell knights will also teleport in if you make any noise. You can lower the walls again by pressing the switch on the south wall. This secret is sometimes hard to register.

Bugs

 * (Saturn only) Raising the walls in the red key room (previously containing the Nine Inch Nails reference) will reveal that the surrounding walls are not drawn at all. If the player has started a new game from the password menu then they will be able to see parts of the surrounding rooms through the walls; if any other level was played before then the walls will be filled with a randomly selected texture from VRAM. In the PlayStation version, the walls render normally using a corpse wall texture.
 * As the walls rise after stepping on secret #2, it is possible to run back into the alcove that held the blue skull key. If you do this in single-player, you will be trapped and unable to escape.

Room design
This level includes the first appearance of the bloody meat hook decoration, which originally served as a replacement for the arch-vile. They are found in the following locations:
 * Two in the starting room.
 * Five in the room containing the red skull key.
 * Four in secret #2.

The red key is moved further away from the bars due to the fact that players in all ports based on the Atari Jaguar code base are wider than the PC equivalent, which otherwise would have made accomplishing the red key item bump trivial in this version.

The reference formerly to be found in the secret behind the red key door has been removed, either to reduce the size of the level in memory or because of trademark concerns. While the secret itself still exists, the floor within it is plain and level and the secret contains various gory decorations.

The gargoyle switch that allows to lower the walls after triggering secret #2 has been replaced by a red/green LEDs switch.

Monster placement
All the barons of Hell, which account for much of this level's steep difficulty, are replaced with Hell knights. This is true in several of the other maps taken from Thy Flesh Consumed.

Music
The map uses the following music tracks:

Player spawns
This level contains four spawn points:
 * 1) facing south. (thing 98)
 * 2) facing east. (thing 99)
 * 3) facing east. (thing 100)
 * 4) facing north. (thing 101)

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level:

Trivia

 * The removal of the hidden Nine Inch Nails Easter egg in this map is repeated in the modern Doom Classic port due to trademark concerns.